Jake from the US--how has the West been alienating Russia? Countries like Georgia has veered strongly towards NATO only because of very high degree of insecurity stemming from Russia's activity in the region. Without security, you cannot have development. Being relegated to Russia's sphere of influence equals denial of democratic choice to these countries, not only in external relations but only in internal matters. This is clearly visible if you look at the state of democratic freedoms in countries of the FSU that prefer not to veer towards the west and for various reasons remain loyal to Russia.

Unfortunately, this conflict is covered by Western media in an extremely biased way. The roots of the conflict have actually been growing from Washington for many years, since the break-up of the USSR.

Please read the articles by a couple well-reputable Western professionals who know the history of the region and understand the true causes of the conflict:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0829/p08s01-comv.htmlquote:"NATO's action, while not legal without UN authority, was widely considered legitimate. "In China, in Russia and in many non-western countries, only UN has moral supremacy and legal supremacy. African countries do not accept NATO supremacy over UN. No UN, not legal.Like it or not, I believe Chinese and Russian are going to favor UN over NATO when there is dispute between NATO and UN. This is major split in international relation and potential conflict.

KK13: UN has moral supremacy and legal basis for all international matters. If you dislike UN Russian veto or China veto, the world is in chaotic warfares. Give and take, The fact is, if Russian is not given proper power (similar to UN), this war will not end in my prediction. It could end up very bad.

KK13:Have your read Gorbachev article in New York times? Gorbachev laid out clearly the facts and background on South Ossetia that Georgians did similar acts of "ethnic war attacks" against south Ossetians. There are lots of reports of ethnic fighting and killing there between Georgian and South Ossetian. The fact is: Georgia attacked and killed people on 8/7/2008. Russia counter-attacked one day later.Is human life of South Osseitans worth less than Kosovoan? I don't see the justification on your position on South Ossetians. No, I don't agree with Putin's position of spoiling. Neither south Ossetian, nor Kosovo should be allowed independent. I don't believe the whole crisis in Georgia should be blamed on Russia. What is good for the whole world if this war is start of new cold war, and possible disaster of nuclear showdown?

Great journalism - and thanks for having this comment space for readers!

It should be remembered that we, on our shared planet earth, don't want the world to go back to a cold-war Russia vs West scenario, even as we see that Putin pretty much typifies "cold warrior". After 1991, while Russians stewed about their lost Vlast (power), the US became the sole 'super power'. Now 15 years on the US has not played her cards too well and Russia is looking to neo-Stalinism. Let's hope with the replacement of Bush and Putin (remember he's at least nominally #2, Bush was always only nominally #1), we get better, more responsible international actors from both these countries.

JH123:
I am not going to continue this mockery of a discussion, as you've tried your best to ignore my attempts to account your opinions with actual arguments based on facts. If one takes a look at your profile and your past comments, they'll find delights such as "I am pro-China, Pro-Russia and Pro-US",
"China, Russia does not recognize Kosovo independence. It is illegal" or "you and me die if you live in USA territory right now." I sincerely ask you to give a thought to what you say before you say it to spare yourself from embarassment.

To clarify,I should perhaps use a concrete example. You should be aware of the fact that, although criticizing everyone else for being biased and for not taking others views into account, you are actually the brightest example of a person doing so. In your escapade against the Tibetans and their leader you are determined to deny any information published by the press in countries with actual freedom of press, and rely solely on what you have been told through official Chinese channels.

These parallels you enjoy drawing between Kosovo and Ossetia are not based on any soprt of background knowledge on either region and are consequently non-existent. With a bit of research you could have found out that Kosovo is both ethnically and culturally entirely distinct from Serbia (Kosovo- 88% albanian, Sebia 84% serb)- as a result it's independence can't be regarded as illegal only because Russia veoted it in the UN, which regardless of your praise fails to function properly thanks to this veto right.

I sincerely hope you will take a few minutes of your life to read this and think about the way you behave towards other peoples views.

Georgia is wake up call for US neocon and West that UN should not be dismissed on Kosovo or any other issues. UN never acknowledged Kosovo Independence. Kosovo independence is illegal. Be careful to get what you wish for. If UN is ditched, Russia is back on Georgia/South Ossetia. The best solution is get back to UN status quo, and get a peace treaty on Kosovo, Georgia between US NATO and Russia. I don't see West and NATO has any leverage over Russia. Russia is not afraid of US, nor NATO militarily. In a nuclear showdown in worst situation, both US and Russia will be destroyed, there will be no winner. It is true that UN is power play mainly among 5 countries: US, Russia, CHina, France, UK. This is the result of power play after world war II. THis works. WIthout working together of 5 powers, no peace will be done in the world, nor in Georgia.

Western media of course is quite biased against Russia, and also again China. Take example of Tibet. Most western media and many European and US politicians view Dala Lama as hero of democracy and good guy, and CHinese government as evil. This is far from the truth. Nobody can dismiss the historical fact that the current Dala Lama was "slave" owner before he fled China, and he was both religious head and political head of Tibet involving in slavery then. Sure, Dala Lama changed, and he now is pro democracy. But his current position of disallowing and expeling non-Tibetans, and for pure Tibetans only in Tibet, is clearly an opinion in violation of western human right. Muslim Chinese has been in Tibet for hundreds of years and they were targeted and killed by Tibetans in incidents prior to Olympics. Han Chinese (the majority of Chinese race) has been immigrated to Tibet for decades and also hundreds of years and should have role and right of living in Tibet. "Tibetans only for Tibet" is certainly a similar view to that of South Africa's aprtheid. This is unlawful in US and in most countries, yet West whole heartedly support Dala Lama on everything, including this. Nobody in the world believe that whites should be expelled from North AMerica, or from Australia. It is certainly no politically right under current UN international law. However, west and US neocon are happily in favor of former slavery leader Dala Lama to expel Han Chinese and Muslims from Tibet. This is double standard case on China and Tibet. I see the similar double standard happening here on Georgia/Russia/South Ossetia here.

To KK13, The US media and European media very much had been inline with US Bush and Neo-con bias on Russia on this Georgia conflict. Now the truth is starting to get out. Gorbachev wrote article in New York times and explained why Georgia started this conflict by doing similar act of cruel stuff agains South Ossetian, and Georgia started war one day before Olympic opening ceremony. The parrallel on Kosovo and South Ossetia are certainly there. Russia unitaterally acted in the war of Georgia, US and NATO unitaterally acted in the Kosovo war and independence. I am pro US and pro western, certainly there should be police in the world. THe Police should be "UN", United Nation Security Council, not NATO, not US. UN has been a successful organization after World War II, no world war ever for past 60 years under UN. It has been working despite folks in US neocon to dismiss it. Now, we got NATO and US pretty much destroyed UN, and the world is in the edge of nuclear showdown between Russia and US, this is not good. Kosovo independence is illegal under UN international law. Neither should 2 provinces of Georgia be allowed to be independent. Russia should not be blamed on Georgia conflict alone. Georgia certainly did poorly on ethnic hostile attack against south Ossetians.

To KK13, The US media and European media very much had been inline with US Bush and Neo-con bias on Russia on this Georgia conflict. Now the truth is starting to get out. Gorbachev wrote article in New York times and explained why Georgia started this conflict by doing similar act of cruel stuff agains South Ossetian, and Georgia started war one day before Olympic opening ceremony. The parrallel on Kosovo and South Ossetia are certainly there. Russia unitaterally acted in the war of Georgia, US and NATO unitaterally acted in the Kosovo war and independence. I am pro US and pro western, certainly there should be police in the world. THe Police should be "UN", United Nation Security Council, not NATO, not US. UN has been a successful organization after World War II, no world war ever for past 60 years under UN. It has been working despite folks in US neocon to dismiss it. Now, we got NATO and US pretty much destroyed UN, and the world is in the edge of nuclear showdown between Russia and US, this is not good. Kosovo independence is illegal under UN international law. Neither should 2 provinces of Georgia be allowed to be independent. Russia should not be blamed on Georgia conflict alone. Georgia certainly did poorly on ethnic hostile attack against south Ossetians.

To KK13, The US media and European media very much had been inline with US Bush and Neo-con bias on Russia on this Georgia conflict. Now the truth is starting to get out. Gorbachev wrote article in New York times and explained why Georgia started this conflict by doing similar act of cruel stuff agains South Ossetian, and Georgia started war one day before Olympic opening ceremony. The parrallel on Kosovo and South Ossetia are certainly there. Russia unitaterally acted in the war of Georgia, US and NATO unitaterally acted in the Kosovo war and independence. I am pro US and pro western, certainly there should be police in the world. THe Police should be "UN", United Nation Security Council, not NATO, not US. UN has been a successful organization after World War II, no world war ever for past 60 years under UN. It has been working despite folks in US neocon to dismiss it. Now, we got NATO and US pretty much destroyed UN, and the world is in the edge of nuclear showdown between Russia and US, this is not good. Kosovo independence is illegal under UN international law. Neither should 2 provinces of Georgia be allowed to be independent. Russia should not be blamed on Georgia conflict alone. Georgia certainly did poorly on ethnic hostile attack against south Ossetians.

Ok good guys, now tell, are we going to have another world war 3? Don't you all feel including the supporters of Mr. Saakashvili that he's taking us into the real nuclear mess? 18 NATO battleships now roaming the Black sea with the so called “humanitarian aid”. They are only 150km away from the Russian battleships. If the war starts Georgia will the first to vanish. Pretty sad.

The lofty rationales utilized to justify any violence are always so much fluff. A country does something because it can. Simply, the competition for power and influence drives the behavior of both the West and Russia. This pas de deux leaves in its wake untold and inordinate deaths. It seems that both sides are willing to expend human capital to this end. It is a sad and bloody method of problem solving and ultimately only diminishes the value of human life. There are no winners.

To JH123:
I don't believe the western media can be said to be treating Russia with much of a bias, especially regarding the events in Georgia, and paralleling Iraq and above all Kosovo with these events is quite narrow minded.
First of all, saying that "US Bush" started the mess in Kosovo is far fetched- there was no Bush in the White House at the time and the intervention in the Balkans (which involved mostly air strikes anyways) was done in the name of NATO to stop ACTUAL ethnic cleansing. All of the above contrast to a great extent the fact that Russia acted entirely independently and put forth a full scale military invasion in Georgia, using as an excuse the security of its own citizens (most of who had been handed Russian passports in the last half a year).
As for Iraq, it is true that "US Bush" started the conflict, however this generalization of "western media" that you prefer to use can't be said to have downplayed the war in any way- although opinion may be divided i the US, the European media can even be said to have been overly critical of the war at times.
It is unfortunate that the 'West' is seen as some sort of conspiratory force bent on undermining the rest of the world, and the fact that the US and it's so-called 'puppy', the European Union are on the same side is only a consequence of them having the same aims in terms of protecting the rights and stability of countries and groups of people unable to do so themselves. Although this will probably be countered with dusty accusations of 'policing the world', it should be remembered that the first diplomat to arrive and start negotiations in Georgia was the Finnish foreign minister, far from a 'puppy' of the NATO, showing the fact that the conflict not only affects the general 'east' and 'west', but smaller and less influential countries in between that will only be harmed by the practise of this cold war mindset of "if you did that, we're allowed to do it too". The right solution to this situation would be to scrap such a prejudiced mindset and to focus on what really happened, not on what happened years before that could possibly justify it. As usual, this is easier said than done.